Iran once again self-sufficient in gas oil production

Mohsen Mazloum Farsibaf, director for planning affairs of the oil
ministry, told SHANA News Agency on July 22 that the country has not
imported any gas oil since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal
year (which started on March 21).

He said that the oil ministry is trying to boost gas supply instead
of liquid fuel to the power plants, so the country has stopped importing
gas oil.

A year after ex-President Mohammad Khatami took the office in 1997
Iran not only became self-sufficient in producing gas oil but also
started to export the surplus amount. The situation remained the same
during his eight years in office. But once Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became
Iran's president, the country once again started to import gas oil.

In the previous fiscal year, Iran delivered around 36 billion cubic
meters of gas to its power plants and consumed around 27 billion liters
of mazut and gas oil to generate electricity.

But the officials announced that they will increase gas delivery to
power plants up to 42 billion cubic meters in the current year.

Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21.

Earlier, Farsibaf said on July 20 that from the beginning of the
current Iranian calendar year until July 15, the power plants averagely
consumed the equivalent of 200 million cubic meters of gas per day, out
of which 160 million cubic meters was actually natural gas, and the rest
was liquid fuel.

"In other words, gas and liquid fuel accounted for 80 and 20 percent
of the power plants' total feed consumption, respectively, in the
mentioned period. It is while the figure was around 60 and 40 percent,
respectively, in the previous fiscal year", he said.

The statistics of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, million liters per day

Gasoline output

Gasoline consumption

Gasoline consumption in power plants

1998

64.7

63.8

Not available

1999

69.5

63.1

Not available

2000

69.9

66.7

Not available

2001

70.8

69.1

Not available

2002

71.8

70.8

Not available

2003

73.2

72

3.4

2004

77

75

5.3

2005

79.1

79.4

6.6

2006

8.4

86.2

12.3

2007

81.6

79.7

12.2

2008

84.9

92.5

11.7

2009

88.7

92.8

13.5

2010

85.2

95.2

16

2011

94.7

96.8

25.5

2012

93.6

97.2

21

2013

94

104

31

The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and
Distribution Company Abbas Kazemi told Shana in May that Iran has
exported above 10 billion liters of mazut and gas oil since March 21 as
well.

In the current month, Iran doubled its gas production rate at the
Phase 12 of giant South Pars gas field, to 25 million cubic meters per
day.

The country also plans to increase the gas field's total production
rate by 80 million cubic meters per day by March 2015. So the liquid
fuel consumption of the country's power plants will decrease.

Yet, it remains to be seen whether Iran succeeds in reducing the gas oil consumption of power plants in the current pace or not.

A glance to the statistics of Iranian calendar years correspond to
2012 and 2013 shows us that gas oil consumption of Iran's power plants
in the warm months is usually 3 or 4 times less than the cold months. So
we should wait and see the final gas oil consumption rate of the power
plants in winter. It is yet to be seen whether Iran manages to keep
refusing to import gas oil from foreign countries even in the cold
months or not.

Iran's monthly gas oil consumption, million liters

2012

2013

First month of spring

137986

203440

2th month of spring

148674

322659

3th month of spring

422414

415397

First month of summer

489704

661322

2th month of summer

744831

408459

3th month of summer

443552

319408

First month of fall

232446

181919

2th month of fall

1141880

321267

3th month of fall

1361937

1626797

First month of winter

1659435

1834785

2th month of winter

1534197

545674

3th month on winter

1018223

832888

Dalga Khatinoglu is specialist on Iran's energy sector and Iran News Service head in Trend Agency